The Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, said: "This is the month of Ramadhan, the blessed month whose fasts Allah has made obligatory. The gates of Paradise are opened in this month and the Satans are shackled in it. In this month, there is a night, which is better than a thousand months. Whoever preserves its sanctity is indeed saved." The Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, repeated it three times!

I heard Ja'far ibn Muhammad, peace be upon him say: "Tests and trials begin with us and then with you, and the times of ease begin with us and then with you. And by the oath of Him where oath is usually taken, Allah will triumph through you the way He triumphed through the stones (of clay)." (Refer to Surah al-Fil).

Once an Arab from the desert came to the Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, and said: "By Allah! We have come to you while we neither have a shrieking camel nor a snoring sheep."

Then he presented the following verses:
"O best of all the creatures, we have come to you,
that you may show mercy to us for the hardship we face!

We have come to you while the maiden girls bleed from
their breasts (because of hard labour),
and the suckling mother is distressed from her baby.

And a young man submits with both his palms,
to receive anything bitter or sweet, weakened by hunger.

Nothing that a human can consume is left with us,
except the common bitter colocynth and the fluffy saplings,
so we have no refuge but with you,
and where can people seek refuge but with the Prophets."

So the Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, turned to his companions and said: "This Arab is complaining of shortage of rainfall and severe famine." Then he rose putting together his clock and climbed up the pulpit. After praising and lauding Allah thus: "All praise to Allah Who when He rose to the heavens became exalted, and on the earth became close - closer to us than the jugular vein."

Then he raised his hands towards the heaven and said: "O Allah, send upon us rain which would give us relief and which would be savory, productive, abundant, pervading, immediate, without any delay. Let it be beneficial without any harm, which would fill the udder and cause the produce to grow from the earth; it would give life to earth after it had died." His hands had not come back to his chest when the clouds encircled Madinah like a crown, and the sky became overcast.

Then the people of the valleys came to the Prophet shouting: "We will drown, we will drown." So the Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny uttered: "Around us and not upon us." So the clouds in the sky dissipated. Then the Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, smiled and said: "How good was Abu Talib. Had he been alive, his eyes would have cooled. Who will recite to us his verses?"

Then Umar ibn al-Khattab rose and said: "O messenger of Allah, perhaps you mean this verse":-

"No she-camel has carried on her saddle
any load, more kind and more dutiful than the
person of Muhammad."

The Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, said: "That was not said by Abu Talib, that is from Hassan ibn Thabit."
Then ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace he upon him, stood up and said: "Perhaps you meant this, O messenger of Allah!":-

"And the bright one from whose face,
the clouds pour forth to relieve the orphans and protect the poor widows,
The one to whom the ruined men from Banu Hashim resort,
While he is among them bounteous, and man of many virtues.
By the sacred House of Allah, you have lied when you said:
'We will surpass Muhammad,'
and when you said: 'we will fight him.'

We will indeed protect him till we are knocked down around him,
unmindful of our own children and our wives."
The Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny said: "Yes, that is it." Then a man from the Banu Kananah stood up and said:

"Praise to you, and all praise to Him Who is All-Rewarding,
We were blessed with rain because of the Prophet.
He prayed to Allah, His Creator,
And turned his eyes unto Him;

And before his glance returned, or
quicker, the rain poured forth upon us.
Bustling forth in abundance and exuberant,
with which Allah succoured the prominent people of Mudhar.
So it was the way his uncle had said,

his uncle Abu Talib, a man of exceeding grace;
(he said): 'By his face shall Allah pour forth from the clouds,'
so this is the witness and that was the information."
The Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, said: "May Allah lodge you, O Kanani, for every couplet you have said, in a chamber in Paradise."

When Mu’awiyah found himself fully entrenched in his rule, he sent Busr ibn Artat to Hejaz, to hunt for the Shi’ahs of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him. At that time, Ubaidullah ibn al-Abbas governed Makkah. He (i.e. Busr) summoned him, but could not find him. Then he was informed that Ubaidullah had two infant sons. So he set out to reach them, and when he found them - they had two (tender) forelocks (shining) like pearls - he ordered to kill them. When their mother came to know this, her grief put her on the verge of death. At that moment, she said:

"Ah! Who has heard about my two dear sons,
who were like two pearls torn from their oyster!
Ah! Who has known about my two dear sons,

who are my ears, my eyes! My heart today feels wrenched.
I am informed that Busr (did it),
but I cannot believe what they thought (of us)
from (what I hear about) their speech and the falsehood they contrived.

So the sharp sword fell on the throat of my two little ones,
that indeed is tyranny and immoderation,
Who showed love to the two tormented
infants who had lost their progenitor."

He said: Then once Ubaidullah ibn al-Abbas met Mu’awiyah while Busr ibn Artat was present. Mu’awiyah said: "Do you recognize this old man who killed the two infants?" Busr said: "Yes, I killed them, so what?" Then Ubaidullah said: "I wish I had a sword." Busr said: "Here is my sword," pointing to his own sword.

Mo'awiya scolded him saying: "Woe unto you! What makes you a fool in spite of your old age! You trust a man whose two sons you killed, and give him your sword? Perhaps you do not know the courage of Banu Hashim? By Allah, if you gave it to him, he could kill you first, and then I would be the next." Ubaidullah said: "On the contrary, by Allah, I would begin with you (O Mu’awiyah) and he (i.e. Busr) would be the next."

Once Umar ibn al-Khattab and I were present with the Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, and ‘Ali, peace be upon him, was sitting by his side. Then the Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, recited the following verse (from the Qur'an):

'Or who answers the distressed when he calls upon Him and relieve the affliction, and has made you successors on the earth?Is there another god with Alalh? No indeed. How little do you reflect?' (27:62).

He said: (Upon hearing this), ‘Ali, peace be upon him, quivered like a bird. The Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, said: "Why are you so worried?" He said: "Why would I not worry, as Allah says He will make us the successors on earth?" The Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, said: "Do not be anxious! By Allah, none but the (true) believer will love you, and none but a hypocrite will hate you."

I heard Ja'far ibn Muhammad, peace be upon him, say: "We are the Chosen ones by Allah among His creation, and our Shi’ahs are His Chosen ones from the Ummah of Muhammad, peace be upon him and his progeny."

I heard Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn ‘Ali, peace be upon him, say: "He who resorts to the way of obeying those who disobey Allah has no religion at all, and he who invents lie against Allah has no religion at all, and he who adopts the way of repudiating anything from the Signs of Allah, has no religion at all."

He said: Abu Hafs Umar ibn Muhammad, popular as Ibn al-Zayyat, reported to me from ‘Ali ibn Mahrwayh al-Qazwini, who reported from Dawood ibn Sulaiman al-Ghazi, who reported from al-Ridha ‘Ali ibn Musa, who reported from is father, Musa ibn Ja'far, who reported from his father Ja'far ibn Muhammad, who reported from his father Muhammad ibn ‘Ali, who reported from his father, ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn, who reported from his father al-Husayn ibn ‘Ali, peace be upon them all, who said:

Amirul Mu’mineen, peace be upon him, said: "If a slave of Allah were to see his appointed time of death, and how quickly it advance towards him, he would detest all his long hopes and would renounce seeking the world."

He said: Abul Faraj al-Barqi al-Dawadi reported to me the following verses which he heard from a saintly old man at Baytul Muqaddas.
"One waiting for death is busy every hour,
diligently constructing, erecting and fortifying,

He has moments, which are tested by a certain reality, (i.e. death)
but his deeds are of those who is not certain.
It is manifest yet denied, its knowledge treated as if
its ways were unknown to even those who are certain."
And may Allah bless our master, Muhammad, the Prophet and his pure progeny.